Firefighters and rescuers try to extinguish a fire in this 2012 file photo.

Naked bathers have fled a fire in east China, running out of a local bathhouse without time to get their clothes.

According to reports a fire quickly spread and engulfed a bathhouse in east China, resulting in one person being killed and six others injured. Other staff and customers at the bathhouse managed to make it out alive, but many of them were forced to flee even before having time to get their clothes back on after bathing at the establishment.

The incident took place in Leqing, Zhejiang province with local reports describing a fierce fire that gave some no chance to escape.

Eye witnesses described naked customers running out from the building, and once they were safe quickly trying to find anything possible to cover themselves up as they watched emergency services arrive and the building burn down.

Following the incident reports have claimed that the fire initially started in the neighboring property, but quickly spread through the entire block of buildings.

One customer of the bathhouse has said, "One minute I was soaking in the tub, the next I could smell smoke and hear screams. There was no time to get my clothes. I just ran for my life," according to the Daily Mail.

Later a fire service spokesperson explained that a leaking gas pipe in a neighboring apartment kitchen was to blame: "A gas pipe fractured in an apartment kitchen which then exploded. The fire spread very rapidly and we were lucky that more people didn't die."